Issues associated with new build nuclear plants
When discussing the future of nuclear power plant construction, there is general agreement that to control costs and risks there is a need to build a fleet of standardized designs. The 2024 US DOE Liftoff report clearly states a committed order book of 5–10 deployments of a single reactor design Read more…
As we reported last month at COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Government Pledge to triple global nuclear by 2050 added six new signatories bringing the total number of countries who have signed the pledge to 31. Support for nuclear power to both meet countries’ clean energy and energy security Read more…
As COP 29 got underway in Baku, Azerbaijan, expanding nuclear power continued to be high on the agenda. The Government Pledge to triple global nuclear signed at last year’s COP 28 in Dubai added six new signatories this year, El Salvador, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Nigeria, and Türkiye, bring the total Read more…
In our last two posts we looked at the pledge signed by more than 20 countries at COP28 in Dubai to triple the amount of nuclear globally by 2050 and the pledge made by more than 120 companies in the nuclear industry to meet this challenge. This month we comment Read more…
In our last post we looked at the pledge signed by more than 20 countries at COP28 in Dubai to triple the amount of nuclear globally by 2050. This month we consider the pledge made by more than 120 companies in the nuclear industry to meet this challenge and support Read more…
Earlier this year, we wrote a post stating that “in 2022 the world acknowledged that net zero needs nuclear – in 2023 it will realize it needs a whole lot of it.” Well, as 2023 draws to a close, it has! This month at COP28 in Dubai, more than 20 Read more…
If you live in a relatively rich country (other than the United States), how often have you heard someone bemoaning government policies to cut carbon emissions say something like – “since we only emit about 1% of global CO2, we could cut our emissions to zero, and it would make Read more…
In our recent post on nuclear project financing, we noted the importance of reducing risk to investors to ensure projects can raise sufficient competitively priced capital needed to build them. Today we will discuss project structures. What are they and why are they important? The project structure is how the Read more…
Early last month, Vogtle Unit 3, the first new nuclear plant to be built in the United States in decades, went critical, meaning it started to nuclear fission and move down the path to producing its first electricity and becoming operational. This was great news as the project has had Read more…
We often hear that financing is a major issue for nuclear projects that creates significant impediments to new projects moving forward. There are myriads of thoughts and ideas on how to fix this, from various clever project contractual structures to identifying new non-traditional sources of funds. But other than stating Read more…
On December 15, 2022, the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) issued ”Pathways to Decarbonization – A report to the Minister of Energy to evaluate a moratorium on new natural gas generation in Ontario and to develop a pathway to zero emissions in the electricity sector”. This report considers a Read more…
In its 2022 report on the role of nuclear power in fighting climate change, “Nuclear Power and Secure Energy Transitions”, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says “Nuclear energy can help make the energy sector’s journey away from unabated fossil fuels faster and more secure.” It goes on to clearly lay Read more…
In our last post, we quoted from recent reports that clearly lay out the environmental benefits of nuclear power. This month we want to start off the year by launching a short series addressing some of the issues that impact energy economics. Today we will talk about the importance of Read more…
This past year, as COP26 came and went, and the climate discussion turned from emission reductions to net zero targets; more and more governments have come to accept that nuclear power should, and in fact must, play an important role in meeting their aggressive climate goals. China is leading the Read more…
In advance of COP26, the next important global meeting to discuss climate change, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released it World Energy Outlook 2021 (and for the first time is offering it for free). And while it notes “a new energy economy is emerging”, it is telling us what we Read more…
So far in 2021 two new countries have started producing nuclear energy for the first time. The UAE has put the first unit of its 4-unit Barakah plant into service with the second one following close behind. In Belarus, it is the same story, as the first unit of the Read more…
Europe is fully committed to addressing the climate crisis, targeting a 55% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 (from 2020 levels) and then becoming the world’s first carbon neutral continent by 2050. Today, almost half of its low carbon electricity comes from nuclear power as Europe has the world’s largest Read more…
Adopted in 2015, 196 countries signed the Paris Climate Agreement (to date 188 of them have ratified it) accepting global ambition to limit global warming to “well below” 2C and adding an aspirational goal of limiting warming to 1.5C. The Paris deal also commits signatories to balance greenhouse gas emissions Read more…
Last year we started a 3-part series on Saving the planet with nuclear power. First, we talked about keeping the existing nuclear fleet operating as long as possible (Saving the planet step 1). Then, in step 2, we talked about building a new global fleet of large Generation III nuclear Read more…
Nuclear power is a people business. Through the hard work of many, most plants operate at very high operating factors and produce clean economic electricity 24 hours a day 7 days a week. They produce in good weather and bad, when it is sunny and when it is dark, when Read more…